Brave New World: Revelation and Resolution by Matt Forbeck

In the aftermath of the mass breakout of superpowered deltas from New Alcatraz, fear and chaos grips the United States. Patriot — the leader of the rebellion known as the Defiance — and his friends Street, Lisa, and Charge work tirelessly to help the people in their organization’s swollen ranks.

When a madman attacks a family of rogue deltas hiding in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, Patriot and his friends rush to their rescue. What they find when they arrive forces them to grab the family and race to Denver, where they wind up in a standoff against Delta Prime, the government agency of superpowered soldiers determined to crush their rising resistance.

In the course of this, the second book of Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World trilogy, the heroes of the Defiance learn more of the truth about the disappearance of the city of Chicago back in 1976, and what they discover will change the world forever.

Revelation is the second book in Matt Forbeck’s 12-for-12 project and a fantastic and action packed sequel in his superpowered Brave New World trilogy.

After breaking out of prison in Revolution, Patriot is once again risking his life to save Deltas from the Primers. This time, the Primers are not going to take any prisoners and are bringing out their heavy weapons to end the wanted criminals. Patriot realises that he needs the help of the Church to buy themselves some time for the rebels to escape. However the Church has an agreement with the President not to grant any Deltas sanctuary. So now the Church must decide whether to give up the rebels knowing that they will die as soon as they walk out the door.

Much of the book focuses on the standoff between the Defiance and the Primers while the Church decides what to do next. The tension in this story is excellent here as we don’t know how far Ragnarok and the Primers would go to kill Patriot, their number one most wanted. There’s also plenty of superpowered action as both sides use the church as their battleground.

The story felt a little short, but there are plenty of things happening in the book which kept it exciting. Without spoiling anything, I’d just like to say I especially enjoyed the twist at the end.

Patriot and his closest friends in the Defiance flee the United States for the warmer and safer climes of Isla Delta, the world’s only nation in which the majority of the citizens are refugees with powers. Unfortunately, President Kennedy — still in office after decades of martial law — seems determined to not let them enjoy any respite and sends the US military to invade.

With many of his friends captured and even shot, Patriot must find a way to sneak back into the USA and break them out of where they’ve been imprisoned in Crescent City. Meanwhile, those same friends managed to make contact with the long-missing city of Chicago, believed to have been destroyed back in 1976.

At the same time, the greatest villain the world has ever known has returned with a new plan to make the world his. If Patriot and the others fail to stop him, he will destroy everything within a hundred miles of Crescent City and wipe every living delta from the face of the planet.

Now in the final book, everything comes together and we have one last standoff between the Defiance and the Delta Prime as Devastator, the world most dangerous villain makes his nefarious plans known.Resolution goes out with a bang with all the superpowered coming together to defeat Devastator and provides a fitting ending to the Brave New World trilogy.

Forbeck has done an impressive job for his first trilogy in his 12-for-12 project. Since he only has one month to write each story, you can understand why he has to limit the word count of each book. Despite each book being a little shorter than I would like, I really enjoyed the entire series as a whole. Each book reveals a little bit more of the BNW world and the variety of casts keeps the plot interesting and exciting. Forbeck really knows how to get you to root for the underdogs and to create villains that you despise.

I’d love to read more books set in this universe and I hope the author would revisit this series at a later date. In the meantime, I’ll be reading his second 12-for-12 trilogy, Shotguns & Sorcery.